


Five Nights at Junes 2

by SkylaDoragono



Series: Five Nights at Junes Trilogy [2]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's, Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe, Attempted Murder, Crossover, Gen, Murder, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-11
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-02-24 23:00:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2599673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkylaDoragono/pseuds/SkylaDoragono
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life is going pretty good for Adachi; he has a steady job and a reason to keep on going, despite the many strange things that happened.  But the events of three years ago are about to come back to haunt him, and this time there's nowhere to hide…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Before the Job

He had an almost picturesque office that he kept surprisingly neat and tidy, despite the fact that he did not seem like the kind of guy that would be a neat freak – something his young boss for the past three years remarked on frequently. The comments were not something he minded, however; he knew the neatness was out of character for his personality, and he enjoyed using that to his advantage when a less than honest client came to call. Still, despite the perfectly organized desk and carefully cleaned carpets, there were touches of things that were uniquely him, like the model gun collection standing proud in a case against the wall, for example.

Then there were the things he could never forget; those where hung in a place of honor behind where he sat. First were two warrior masks, one silver and one red, staring out blankly at where clients would sit. In between them was a photo of four kids, each standing next to a large animatronic character. It was a lively photo of a happier time, with the tallest kid of the group hugging the bunny, while a little girl in a kimono was looking adorable in front of the phoenix. A little grey haired kid was looking shyly at the camera in front of the warrior guy, while the last kid was throwing his arms up in the air in front of the frog, an excited grin on his face.

It was just an ordinary day like all the others that had come before it, and he was reclining in his nice and soft desk chair, his feet up, when the phone rang. He let out a grumble as he pitched himself forward, snatching up the receiver on the third ring.

"Shirogane and Associates, this is Adachi." 

_Silence._

He paused, staring at the phone in mute surprise.

"Hello?"

There was a click, like something had turned itself on, and he could hear something like a music box playing in the background. It took him a moment to place it as the sound a jack-in-the-box played when it was being wound up, but it was nearly drowned out as a shuddering breath came over the phone.

"I-I'm sorry for the recorded message, but this is for Detective Adachi," the voice he did not recognize uttered, sounding completely terrified and somewhat muffled, like they were speaking through a mask. "I-I've read you have s-some experience in this sort of thing, s-so I'll just say this:

"Junes has reopened. They'll be looking for a new night guard soon."

With that said, the jack-in-the-box music cut off, only for a _horrendously loud_ screech the rip over the phone, and if he was not in such a state of shock he probably would have ripped the receiver away from his ear. A sickening thump followed, and there was deafening silence over the line before it sounded like something heavy was being dragged away…


	2. Night One

_He was staring out at endless rows of party tables, looking through a set of hollowed out eye holes. It was pitch black, and somehow he knew it had been that way for a very long time. That did not stop him from looking over to his right, a faint whirr sound accompanying the movement of his head. He could see Take beside him, looking out to the party tables as if he were anticipating something coming. He turned the other way, and on his left was Sakuya, looking out in much the same manner. Even for robots, they seemed tense…_

_Something was coming. Something that should have never come back…_

~.oOOo.~

Not long after The Incident of three years ago, the main part of the Junes Super Store had been reopened to the public.  The majority of the employees from The Incident had either been fired or arrested, and those that were not had not been welcome back; the entire employee community had been replaced, the store swept clean and restocked, and The Place where The Incident had occurred completely blocked off from the view of the public.  It was something best left forgotten, and most had up until a few months ago.  One of the employees fondly remembered the play area of the store, and she had a vision of what it could be if it was brought back.  She approached the management and they agreed.

They were idiots as far as he was concerned.

The employee, now the manager of the newly dubbed Teddie's Play Place, was likeable enough, and he could tell as soon as he met her that she had to be unaware of what was probably going on at night.  She was a vibrant young woman, a full time student and full time employee, and somehow still had enough energy to be practically bouncing around as she showed him the new and improved Junes play area.  He had to crack a smile at her enthusiasm, despite the fact that the reason he was there was as far from something he could be enthusiastic about as possible.

"So, we've expanded the play area, and included an arcade and a prize area," she was explaining rapidly, that smile having yet to leave her face as she showed off her pride and joy.  "We've got an animatronic there to hand out the prizes to the kids that win.  The entire area is locked up at night, and the key for it is locked in my office, so you should not have to worry too much about that."

A place with an animatronic that was locked up?  He already knew he was going to have to worry.

"We have four separate party rooms, and a big concert stage for the new animatronics," she continued, bringing him over to the concert area.  There were a healthy collection of kids there being watched over by the employees, though they did not need to do much.  The kids were all dancing and cheering to the cartoonish characters up on the stage, singing for the crowd.

A tight feeling settled in his stomach as he looked at the three on the stage, already mentally comparing them to the old ones he was _very_ familiar with.  The bunny was red and gold now, and was sporting lightning bolt shaped whiskers as well as a lightning-themed guitar.  The bird was a lot skinnier now but somehow fluffier as well, and her golden feathers seemed to shimmer as she moved back and forth, singing in a voice much clearer than the old one.  Teddie had not changed much, except he might have been a little taller, and was sporting a purple cape.

"They're amazing, aren't they?" she asked, catching him staring.  "When they're not performing, they're set to free roam.  The kids love it when they walk around and interact with them."

"I bet," he replied, turning to the side slightly so she could not see him clenching his hand against a slight tremor.

"Oh, let me show you where you'll be working!" she exclaimed happily, practically bouncing to the back of the play area.  A faint smirk twitched at his lips as he followed, but it quickly faded when they got to the guard office.  Instead, his expression turned to one of pure dread at the wide open doorframe in front of him.

"This is the guard station," she explained, not looking back at the abject horror on his face.  "We've gone with a more modern design, and we left the door off to allow guards to be able to see straight to the stage."

Translation: so the animatronics could kill him easier.

He swallowed hard, trying to ignore the fact that his hand was shaking beyond his control, and looked down to see a young woman monitoring the cameras.  She glanced up when she realized she was being stared at, offering the two of them a bright smile.

"Oh, Kujikawa-san, this is our new night guard!"

That bright smile faded almost immediately.

"Night guard…?" Kujikawa asked softly.

"Yeah," the area manager replied, missing the fear on her face.  "I thought I told you?  Ichijou-kun walked off the job last week.  It's a shame, he was so enthusiastic too…"

Kujikawa looked like she was going to scream, but managed to keep it down by some miracle.  Instead, she focused an uneasy look on him, forcing a smile on her face; she was not a bad actress, though she probably would have been more convincing if she was not obviously so concerned.  She finally stood up, offering a hand out to him.

"Kujikawa Rise," she introduced.  By some miracle, he managed to keep his hand steady enough to shake hers, though he quickly stuffed it into a pocket.  He was losing it, and he needed to wrap this up quickly.

"Auguste Kindaichi," Tohru Adachi introduced himself, silently promising that he was never going to let Naoto come up with undercover aliases ever again.  He turned to the area manager – something Satonaka?  He did not quite catch her name amongst all the bouncing enthusiasm she was spouting at him.  "Sorry, I don't mean to cut this short, but is there a bathroom in the area?"

"Sure!" she exclaimed, turning and pointing to where the restrooms were.  She let out a faint noise, before holding out the package she had been carrying around with her.  "Here, you should change into your uniform while you're in there."

"Thanks," Adachi managed, taking the uniform and retreating to the bathroom.  He just barely managed to make it inside before the anxiety tremors started creeping up from his hand and along his arm.  His other hand was starting to shake, and he dropped the bag with the uniform in it, pulling out a bottle of pills.  His shaking made getting a pill out easier, but it made actually shoving it in his mouth and getting water in there to swallow it down that much harder.

It had been a year since he needed to take medication for his tremors, and a good two years since he stopped needing medication to go to sleep at night.  He had finally managed to hang up the picture of the kids he snagged from Junes after it first closed, finally started feeling like a human being again, when he got that phone call last week.  He was guessing it was from that "Ichijou" person, and he seriously doubted he "walked off" the job.

A good minute or two passed before Adachi's hands calmed down enough for him to grab up the uniform, and he was privately grateful that it was not _bright purple_ like the last one had been.  Instead, it reminded him more of his time as a beat cop, with the soft blue of the shirt and dark blue shoulder pads.  As he pulled it on, he noted that Rise had been wearing the same thing, so at least he felt like less of a target this time.

Except when it came to that _massive wide open doorway_ into the guard office.  Adachi had to pause at that, a violent shudder going through him; how the hell was he supposed to deal with these guys when he had no doors to protect him?  An even better question was why the hell had he insisted to be the one to go undercover when _he knew what was coming?_

He buttoned up the last button on the shirt, before taking a deep breath to try and calm his nerves.  He… he could do this; he survived six nights of this crap three years ago.  How bad could it be?

By the time he went back out onto the floor, most of the kids had already been picked up by their parents, and the animatronics were waving goodbye as the last few kids started to trickle out.  A faint smile tugged at his lips at the sight, and he started toward the guard office, passing by the prize counter.  The sound of Satonaka locking up the area drew his attention toward her, and he felt his stomach bottom out.

Standing on the counter was a painted face, mouth open wide in a friendly smile.  Connected to the face was a long, noodlely body that was just red and black stripes.  The mere sight of it sent a chill down Adachi's spine, and he did not like the fact that the thing _did not have any eyes,_ but it still felt like it was staring directly into his soul.  Satonaka turned, giving him a friendly smile and wave as she headed toward her office, but the thing still stared sightlessly at him.

He swallowed hard, forcing himself to turn away from the creepy prize animatronic and head toward the guard office instead.  For a moment he found himself standing just outside it, feeling his stomach bottom out at that wide open door frame.  This was just so not fair…

"Kindaichi-san?" Rise asked, nearly making him jump.  She forced a brave smile on her face, silently encouraging him.  "I… hope you have a good first night."

It sounded like she really meant it, and it helped Adachi feel a little bit at ease.  He waited until she left the room before he entered, looking around.  The posters were brand new, and there were a lot of new kids drawings on the walls.  A few of them seemed innocent, but some were a bit disturbing, and he really wanted to know why there was a head being tossed around in the one picture…  Adachi paused a moment as he stared at it, before he shook his head; actually, no.  He did not want to know.

He rounded the desk and plopped down in the chair, letting out a tired sigh… before he noticed there was a tape recorder and a tape marked, "Night One Training" on the desk.  He distinctly felt his heart freezing in his chest, and it felt like his body was moving on auto-pilot as he put the tape into the recorder and pressed play.  He half expected to hear the voice of the dead, the one that would read him the Junes policy that said they were not responsible for injury or death.  When he heard Rise's soft voice instead, he felt his entire body melt in relief.

"Hey there, Kindaichi-san," her voice came softly over the speaker, and he had to turn up the volume to hear it better.  "Well, I guess I should welcome you to working at Junes, but… I should warn you that Satonaka-san really doesn't know what the nightshift is like.  I was the first person to work that shift since Teddy's Play Place opened, and… it's not fun.  At all.

"Listen, the animatronics _will_ try to get into your office, not that it's very hard for them to, between the large door and the vents."

_Vents!?_ Adachi peered up over the desk, seeing massive vents on either side of the room.

"I keep telling Satonaka-san that we need some kind of screens on these vents, but she keeps saying that it helps the smell of meat fill the place… I really don't understand her sometimes."

Adachi was pretty sure he was not going to be able to understand her either.

"The animatronics here are a bit special," Rise's message continued.  "After the… Incident, the company pulled all the stops when they reopened this area.  They have advanced mobility, and they have facial recognition.  They're remotely linked into a criminal database, and they didn't… really bother me when I worked at night.  They mostly just stared at me, before moving on their way.  I think the problem is they were never given a proper 'night' mode, so when it's quiet, they go to look for where people are, which of course is only going to be the office.  But then there's… that Puppet…"

Adachi made a face as she trailed off; oh he knew it.

"The Puppet was actually from the original place," she explained.  "Satonaka-san said she found it buried in the utility closet.  She thought it was cute, so she had it fixed up and put on the Prize Counter.  It may be locked up at night, but that thing manages to find a way to get out if you don't keep it happy… learned that the hard way…"

Adachi already felt like he was going to be sick.

"If you pull up the Prize Counter security camera on your tablet, you should see a 'button' toward the bottom.  I asked a friend of mine to program that in; it'll allow you to remotely wind up a music box at the counter if you hold it down.  Unfortunately, it does wind down pretty fast, but if you keep the music playing, it should fool the Puppet into thinking there are still children around, so it shouldn't come after you.  Just… keep that music box wound up.  Trust me."

He immediately grabbed the tablet, pulling up the camera app and navigating over to the Prize Counter.  He saw the button she indicated, next to a timer that was already halfway down.  He planted his thumb on that button so hard he was certain he would break the screen.

"As for the other animatronics…" she began.  "I don't know if they'll be violent, but… we've gone through a few other night guards, and now Ichijou-kun just left… I don't know for sure what will happen.  If you look behind your chair, you'll see that I've left an old mask for you.  Hopefully that will fool them into thinking you're an animatronic too if you stay still.  Unfortunately that means you can't leave the mask on and check the tablet; it's really hard to see out of that mask, so you'd have to bring the tablet right up to your face.  It's not going to fool them if you're like that… I don't think.  Either way, I wouldn't try it."

Adachi glanced behind him, reaching around and pulling the mask off the back of the chair.  Of course it was an Izanagi mask, and he let out a sigh as he plopped it on the top of his head so he could just reach up and pull it down when he needed it.  He would have rather had a _door,_ or a _cover on the vents,_ but he supposed this was the next best thing.

"Oh, also, you have a flashlight, and there are lights on the vents you can control from the tablet too, so you don't need to worry about getting up from the chair," the tape continued.  "Also, Junes stopped with the solar power thing when they reopened.  So your flashlight might run out of battery, but the building won't, so you don't have to worry about that."

_"Good,"_ Adachi grumbled.

"So… I'll see you tomorrow morning, Kindaichi-san.  Good luck."

The tape fell silent at that, and he reached over to turn it off before running a hand over his face.  Again, what was he thinking coming back to his place?  Of course there was still a problem with the animatronics.  Of course they were going to try to kill him.  That's how these things worked, after all.

He turned his gaze down to the tablet, tapping over to the stage, only to see that the new Take was already missing.  Of course, that damn bunny was going to be coming after him first; what else was he supposed to expect?  Adachi let out a frustrated noise, tapping around before finally locating the bunny in one of the party rooms, staring up at the camera.  He was leaned over with his guitar, looking like he was listening for people, but of course, no one was around.  Who's brilliant idea was it to just let them wander around anyway?  Even during the day…!

"Oh, right, music box," he muttered under his breath, switching over to the Prize Counter and winding the box back up again.  This was the stupidest… how was he supposed to keep an eye on them if he had to keep paying attention to that Puppet thing?

"Guess I just have to pray," he muttered, switching back to the party room, only to see the bunny had moved off again.  Just as he was about to go looking around for the damn thing, he could hear a… _weird_ sound coming from the vent on his right, almost like something was breathing down it.  Oh _hell…_

He pulled the mask down over his face, feeling his heart trying to hammer its way out of his chest.  Something red appeared in the corner of his _very_ limited vision, before the bunny practically glided past him, staring into the eyes of the mask with that wide, cheeky grin on its face.  Adachi's heart relocated to his throat, and he was afraid to even breathe as the thing passed by him.  It finally vanished from his field of view, and he hesitated for a long moment before pulling the mask back up.  His office was empty, and he let out a relieved sigh… until he noticed there was a warning light flashing on the tablet.

_The damn music box!_

He switched over to the Prize Counter, winding that thing like his life depended on it… and it probably really did.  Thankfully, it looked like he caught it in time, and he could hear the sound of the music box coming over the speaker loud and clear.

"Is it six AM yet…?" he muttered under his breath, already regretting this decision.  Both Naoto and Dojima had volunteered to do this instead, but he insisted that he do it, that he be the one to go back to the place of his nightmares.  He was a fucking idiot and he knew it too.

He switched back to the stage camera, only to see the bird had moved off the stage too.  A curse escaped from him as he flicked around, trying to find her and… he found her alright, near the bathrooms, sans beak, which showed off the sharp teeth of her endoskeleton.  _Why did she have to take her beak off?!_

"You are one twisted chick…!" he whispered at the tablet.  He muttered obscenities under his breath, switching back to the counter to wind the stupid box again, before going back to the bathrooms.  Wait… the bathrooms were just down the hall, right…?

_Oh god._

Adachi grabbed the flashlight, turning it on just in time to see the bird standing down the way.  A scream ripped from his throat, and he dropped the light, pulling his mask down.  It did not look like the bird was coming in, and it felt like an hour passed before he peered out of his mask, grabbing the light again.  Of course, the bird was _still standing there,_ and he managed not to scream that time as he pulled the mask back.

_What the hell was he supposed to do here!?_

He silently prayed for the bird to go away, knowing that the music box had to be down to near nothing by now.  Finally, he peered out again, pointing the flashlight down the hall, only to see that it was clear.  Adachi did not allow himself to breathe, instead grabbing the tablet and stabbing the button.  The music box wound back up, playing the tune still, and that was when he allowed himself to breathe.  That changed quickly when he switched to the stage, and saw that _Teddy was missing._

_The bear could move off stage now!?_

"Oh fuck me…!" he whined, his finger tapping around in a desperate search for the red and blue bear, but no such luck. His flashlight was up next, and there he was alright, standing right in the doorway.

Adachi dropped everything and pulled down the mask, his heart practically stopping cold as he watched the animatronic walk right up to his desk. The yellow eyes stared directly into the eyeholes of the mask, and he thought for certain he was dead. There was no way that stupid bear thought he was really an animatronic, and he continued to _stare_ at him as if trying to decide. Even in his terror, he could not help but notice where the new mobility of the suits came in; where the old ones were big and clunky, almost jerky as they moved around, the new ones seemed almost human-like in their movement.

It felt like forever before the bear turned away from him, cape fluttering behind him as he walked off into the darkness. Adachi waited for his heart to start back up before grabbing the tablet, stabbing at that wind button again. Dammit, he had to check the cameras elsewhere too, on top of winding this stupid music box, on top of checking the lights and the hallway in front of him, on top of dropping everything and pulling the mask on when they got too close. How the hell was he supposed to keep up with all of this!?

Yet even as he struggled to breathe normally and not panic, he could not help but feel an excited thrill clench at his heart. He had not had his blood boil and his heart race like this since that time three years ago, when he was so desperate for a promised "good" paycheck that he nearly died for it. It made him a bit sick to find all of this exciting, but…

He squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head and forcing himself to focus. Rise said he could check the vents remotely, and it took him a little bit to find the light for it. They were clear, with no sounds coming out from them. Now that he thought about it, everything seemed abnormally quiet…

Adachi was about to grab up his flashlight and check, when the lights suddenly came on in the hallway, and he could see where the animatronics were up on stage like they never left it. A moment later he saw Rise rushing over from the entrance and he stared at her for a long moment, before checking the watch he made sure to bring this time. Six AM… just like the last time, this place seemed to be screwing with his perception of time.

He did not get a chance to dwell on it for too long, as Rise was soon right there in front of him, looking over him with concern clearly painted on her face.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly, like she was worried something might come in. He gave her a smile at that; this was already a different experience from the last time, and at least some of the differences were good.

"Yeah… a little freaked out, but okay," he said softly, before shrugging, reaching up to pull off the mask and set it down. "I'm familiar with the story of the old place… I kinda had a feeling not much had changed."

Rise looked surprised at that, the color draining out of her face at that, but he shook his head as he stood up, insisting it was okay.

"See you tonight?" he asked, getting a numb nod out of her before he went on his way.


	3. Night Two

_It was the old party room again._

_The rows of tables stretched out into the darkened void before him, but something felt extremely off.  He found out what it was when he turned his head; to his right, Take was half turned toward him, eyeing him precariously.  To his left, Sakuya was also looking at him, as if she was just realizing he was there._

_And it was clear, they were_ not _happy about his presence._

_He looked back and forth between the two of them, a whirring noise accompanying the movement of his head.  He tried to say that it was him, that he was a friend, but it was like he could not get anything to move.  All he could do was just stand there as they glared at him, until a buzzing noise filled his ears and his vision went black._

_…and in the darkness, there was a faint whisper:_

it's me

~.oOOo.~

"You look like hell."

Adachi did not think he could have focused a blander look on anyone before in his life.  He let out an annoyed sigh as he blindly fumbled to put the coffee pot under the brewer, even though he was staring right at it.  A grumble escaped from him when he finally got it in, rubbing at the sleep in his eyes.

"…forgot how much of a zombie those pills made me in the mornin'," he muttered, before taking a long draw from his coffee.

Ryotaro Dojima gave him a sympathetic look, pushing a chair at their conference table out so Adachi could sit.  With the cause of his daughter's severe injury resolved and Nanako gradually making more and more progress in relearning how to react and move despite her lack of a frontal lobe, his old partner and mentor had been in higher spirits.  It was only a few months after The Incident that Dojima offered his services in their little detective agency, and with Naoto Shirogane at the helm, they made quite an impressive private investigation company.  They mostly dealt with little things, but it was honest work, and Adachi could not have been happier to work with the two of them.

He flopped into the offered seat, practically draining his coffee cup before setting it down.  Naoto raised an eyebrow at that, shaking her head, before reaching for a folder in front of her.

"Well, the new management is much more cooperative with information, so long as we're quiet about our investigation," she began.  "The last incident is still fresh in everyone's minds, and Junes Corporation does not want a repeat of the _years_ that passed before it was resolved the last time."

"Least we're all on the same page," Dojima grumbled.

Naoto spared a grim smile, before she opened up the folder before her.  "If it helps, Adachi-san, I have information on the new animatronics."

"Sure, I love knowing the names of the things out to kill me," he mumbled.

Naoto rolled her eyes, but was not about to object to his understandable cynicism.  "They were originally going to re-commission the old animatronics, but felt it would be better to go with almost all of them being different characters," she explained, spreading out the pictures in the folder.  "The bunny is Roten and the phoenix is Ame, the guitarist and singer respectively in Teddie's band.  Suso the frog is in the play area for the toddlers, and doesn't go on stage."

"Funny, didn't see him last night," Adachi muttered, pulling up the picture of the frog with a massive red afro.  Then again, if he was taking Jiraiya's place, then he was probably going to see him that night.  "What about that Puppet thing?"

Naoto frowned at that, going through the pictures before finding that _disturbing_ thing.  "That…?  What is that?"

"Terrifying," he answered blandly.  "I've gotta keep a music box playing otherwise who the hell knows what it'll do.  Apparently it was stuffed in the old parts and service room somewhere."

"That's the information I have," Naoto replied as Dojima held up the picture, frowning at the thing.  "The person I spoke with about the original play area did not even know it was there."

"Well that's fun," Adachi replied blandly.  Nothing like a mysteriously appearing Puppet to ruin your day.  "What about the others?"

Naoto spread out the images further.  "The General Teddie animatronic is the same bear as before," she began.  "They've updated his endoskeleton with the new technology, which is what made him a little taller, so they had to put a new suit on him as well, hence the slight redesign."

"He moved with the rest of them last night," Adachi pointed out, reaching out to set aside pictures of the animatronics that moved.  "Roten, Ame, and Te—oh dammit."

Pushing the picture of Ame aside revealed a picture of an upgraded Izanagi, and Adachi felt a pit open up in his stomach as he remembered the first night he saw the broken animatronic.  That had not been a pleasant experience, and had been the source of many of his nightmares.  This one definitely looked like it was supposed to be more kid friendly, since it was wearing white instead of black now.  His mask was more angular though, and he could not help but think it made him look more evil.

Just his luck.

"Anyway… these were the three that tried to come after me last night," Adachi continued, pushing the new Izanagi out of his sight.  "And Teddie didn't move the last time; he served as a warning alarm for when someone stepped out of the guard office."

"So it's not just the technology that's been updated," Dojima replied, and Adachi could hear the skepticism loud and clear in his voice.  That was part of the reason he had decided to put himself back in this danger; maybe the two of them would have been able to handle themselves well enough, but Naoto barely believed his story, and he knew for a fact Dojima did not.  He knew it was that disbelief that would make the two of them think they were fine, when in reality they were probably about to die.

"The real problem is," Adachi began, "I have no idea just how lethal these things are.  The last ones were completely aware of who they were, and they did what they did because they were lashing out.  That's why Konishi lasted for three years, that's why everyone else that held that position was gambling with their lives, but these… I don't know.  I don't know enough yet."

He fell silent again, his gaze remaining on the images of the new animatronics; he hated to think that even more kids were murdered in that place, but… he was not going to dismiss the possibility.  There was so much that happened there, and he was pretty sure three years later, the investigators for The Incident where still going through all of Morooka's files.  There could have been hundreds of bodies tied with the place that none of them even knew about.

Damn, did he hate this.

"Only thing I can do is keep going back until this is done," he finished, checking his watch as the both of them gave him a concerned look; another three hours before his shift.  At least he had some more time to wake himself up and get himself alert before he delved back into hell.

~.oOOo.~

Rise was just getting up from her seat to leave when Adachi came in, and she looked up at him in surprise, almost like she could not believe he was coming back for a second night.  He could not blame her; if only she knew exactly how many nights of torture like this he had really been through.  She would either be terrified of him or start calling the mental wards, and he would not have been able to blame her either way.

"Have a good night, Kindaichi-san," she said once she recovered herself, flashing him a brave smile as she headed out.  Adachi slid in behind the desk, not at all surprised to see a tape marked with "Night Two Training" sitting next to the player.  He leaned back, putting on the guise of a man that was ready for a long, boring night as employees and customers slowly trickled out.  Once the last of them were out, he dropped that mask really fast, slipping the tape into the player as he grabbed up the tablet.

"Hello, Kindaichi-san," Rise's voice came over the speaker as he went right to the camera for the prize counter, winding that stupid music box up to full before he did anything else.  "I… I don't know why you'd come back to this place, if you really worked here before the… Incident.  But you really need to know: the old animatronics are still here."

Adachi felt his blood freeze, eyes widening as he stared at the tablet.

"They're in the parts and service room, and we're using them as spare parts… mostly," the tape continued to explain, and Adachi immediately flicked over to parts and service.  The room was completely dark, but he noticed there was a light icon in the corner of the picture.  He tapped it, only to see a very clear image of a _very_ familiar bunny with a lightning pattern on its stomach.  The only problem with that was _he had no face._

"Dammit, Take… what'd they do to you?" he muttered under his breath.

"Originally, Satonaka-san was going to have the originals repaired," Rise's tape continued to explain.  "She even started retrofitting them with the new technology herself, but she only finished Teddie and put him in service before management shot down the rest of them being repaired.  They _shouldn't_ activate during the night, but if they do, the Izanagi mask should work on them too."

They "shouldn't"; she may as well just have said they most definitely would.

"Oh… except maybe Jiraiya," she continued.  "That one was always really twitchy…"

Twitchy. _Understatement._

"If he happens to activate during the night, try flashing your light at him.  They never did like bright lights; I think it causes a system reset in them or something?  I don't know how it works really, but it might help."

Adachi planted a hand over his face; there were too many maybes in this whole situation for him to be comfortable with all this new stuff.  He let out a sigh as he tapped over to the stage, noticing that Roten had already moved off to another area – probably one of the party rooms, if he followed the same pattern as last night.  A deep breath escaped from him as he switched back to the prize counter and wound up the music box.

"Anyway, just hang in there," she continued.  "I… well, I hope you'll be okay.  I'll see you in the morning."

The tape fell quiet before snapping off, and Adachi let out a breath as he flipped through the other cameras.  Now that he knew it was there, he noticed the light icon on all of the other camera views; at least that would make it easier to see what was coming after him.  Heck, if that "system restart" thing actually worked, maybe that would give him extra time to get the mask on and save himself.

He tapped over to party rooms, spotting Roten knelt down by one of the vent entrances.  There he was, which meant that he would be trying to come into the office next.  Good, he was prepared for him; he just had to check around, make sure everything looked okay, and then go back to the prize counter and wind the—

Once he tapped the prize counter camera, an obscenely loud static _hiss_ filled the room.  He almost dropped the tablet in surprise, and he glanced up, half expecting an animatronic to come at him.  A heartbeat passed, before Adachi glanced down at the tablet, lighting up the prize counter area…

"Ghk…!"

He choked back a scream, but only just barely.  The source of the static was an animatronic, but it was such a twisted amalgamation of parts that it was almost unrecognizable.  If it were not for the bright red afro and frog eye stalks, Adachi probably would not have been able to pin it as being Suso, the one that was supposed to be active in the area for the toddlers.  It looked more like it had been torn apart and put back together again so many times that no one really knew what it was supposed to be anymore.  It even had a second endoskeleton head!  That was so many levels of wrong!

"I hate this place…" he muttered, winding the music box just as he heard a banging sound in one of the vents.  He switched the camera over to a different view to cut the static sound out, before pulling the Izanagi mask down over his face.  The sight of red crept into his vision again, and then he could see the stupid rabbit's smiling face as he glided past him.

Adachi waited, before letting out a breath, pushing the mask up and peering around before going to wind the music box again.  That creepy frog was gone, thankfully, but it could have also been coming after him next for all he knew.  He could not dwell on it, however; he had yet to look down the hall in front of him, and he grabbed up the flashlight, blinking it on.

When the light illuminated the hall, he was in for a very familiar sight.  He made sure he would never forget what the old animatronics looked like; that was why he hung the photograph of the kids behind his head in his office.  Seeing Jiraiya down the hallway, battered and beat up from the three years of neglect, parts of his costume torn open and an eyestalk missing, revealing the endoskeleton underneath… the sight broke his heart.  His flashlight lingered on, and he had to force himself to turn it back off, in case he really was just forcing him to reboot over and over again.  Between that and seeing Take with his entire face missing, he almost got up from his seat to grab the kid and make sure he was okay.

That was when a terrifying thought struck him: what if the kids' souls were not in the animatronics anymore?  What if the animatronics were actually malfunctioning this time around?  Or worse?  He could not take the risk, and Adachi flicked his flashlight on, only to see that Jiraiya had moved on.

He sat back in his chair, silent as a tight feeling tugged at his chest, and he did not move again until he heard something breathing down the vent.  Adachi reached up, rubbing at his face, before grabbing up the tablet, tapping around, trying to find who was coming after him this time.  Everyone was gone from the stage again, but he also could not see where they were anywhere near a vent.  He frowned, pausing at the prize counter to wind the music box again, but it was when he tapped over to the next camera, where the arcade area was, that he noticed something was off.  There was some kind of stand there with balloons, but it looked like there were less balloons there than before…

A banging sound reached his ears, and he knew that whatever was "breathing" down the vents was in them now.  Curious despite himself, he brought up the cameras for the vents.  The one to his right was clear, but the left—

"What the…?!"

He could not help but shout out at that; initially he thought it was a little kid with an afro that somehow managed to remain in the store after hours.  Flicking on the light again showed that there was a big plastic grin on his face, and he could make out a faint line of metal that was helping the afro keep shape.  Two thoughts occurred to Adachi then; one, was that was the funkiest animatronic he had ever seen and two, was that Satonaka had some seriously strange tastes.

There was the thump of it crawling closer as soon as he looked away, and he tapped the button for the vent light in time to see the tip of his afro poking through the vent.  Adachi grabbed for his mask immediately, and he could see a balloon bobbing through his field of vision.  It was a bit morbid that his mind was struggling to read the writing on the red balloon as it went past him – some kind of riddle? – before finally disappearing down into the hallway.

He let out a breath as he pushed the mask back up again, checking the hallway first just in case.  The funky balloon boy was nowhere to be seen, but he could see Jiraiya at the end of the hall again.  He whispered a faint apology, flicking his light repeatedly until he saw the animatronic disappeared, before turning his attention back to the music box.  Dammit, he hated that thing; why did it seem to degrade faster when he was not looking at it?  Was it just him freaking out, or was it actually doing that?

Adachi shook his head, going to flick his flashlight down the hall again, only to scream, dropping the light in the process.  That _damn twisted frog_ was hanging from the ceiling just outside the room, both heads staring straight into the office.  He fumbled for the mask, pulling it on in the next moment; there was no doubt in his mind that they all heard that, and they would be coming for him any second.  He pressed himself back into his seat, gripping the arm rests in a death grip as he struggled to remain absolutely still.

They came in one after the other; Suso crawled in along the ceiling, most of its costume torn away for reasons he did not even want to think about.  The endoskeleton snaked around a light above him, letting the frog stare down at him with its eyestalks.  There was a thump in front of him, and Teddie came into the room, Ame following just behind him.  The two of them stared into the eye holes of his mask, and Adachi forgot what breathing was like for a long moment while they were just standing there, Suso above them letting out that annoying hissing noise.  It felt like an eternity before they finally decided he was an animatronic too, and went on their way.

He pushed his mask up, letting out a shaking breath as he went immediately for the prize counter, knowing that music box was going to need winding without even seeing the warning light.  His finger was shaking even as he held it on the screen, and he was fairly certain that his heart was going to leap straight out his throat any second.  A second later he could hear that breathing sound again, and Adachi just pulled the mask over his face, not even thinking about it.  Roten glided past his vision after a moment, before disappearing entirely.

Adachi pushed the mask back up, running a hand over his face again.  Dammit, this was stressful; this was even worse than the last time, and there was more that he needed to keep an eye on!  And that _damn music box_ kept needing his attention when he was more concerned about his life at the moment!

_Hi.  
_

Adachi froze, eyes widening.  Wait, what?

_Hello._

"Hello?"

He heard a thump in the vent, and he knew he made a mistake.  Even as he fumbled for his mask, the funky balloon boy was coming through and into the office.  An annoying laugh filled the room, repeating over and over again even as he pulled the mask down, and he already knew that he was not fooling the stupid thing.  It was _damn_ loud too, and Adachi flinched as he pushed the mask back up, going to check down the hall because he was _certain_ that they would be coming right for him now that something was there practically calling them into the room.

As soon as he touched the switch, he knew he was doomed.  The light did not come on, even though he was fairly certain the batteries were still good.  His heart hit his throat, and he tried the lights on the vents as well, only to see those were not working either.

_What the hell was he supposed to do now?!_

"Go away!" he hissed at the animatronic, checking the music box again.  The least he could do was keep that thing wound and just put the mask on; maybe it would still fool the others even though the balloon creep was just standing there laughing.  He did not know what he was supposed to do about Jiraiya, other than cross his fingers and pray.

He pulled his mask down just as he heard something breathing in the vents, and he had no idea what it was.  That funky balloon boy kept laughing over and over and now pounding from the vent started to fill the room.  He squeezed his eyes shut as a shuffling sound came from the hallway, and in the distance, he could almost hear the sound of a jack-in-the-box…

…suddenly everything fell disturbingly quiet, and Adachi was too terrified to open his eyes, least something be waiting right in front of his face to get him.  He could almost picture it; General Teddie looming over the desk, yellow eyes focused intently on his mask, just waiting for his eyes to open and—

"Kindaichi-san?"

Adachi's eyes flung themselves open, but the only thing that he could see through the eyeholes was Rise's concerned face.  Funky balloon boy was nowhere in sight, and the lights were on in the play area behind her.  He finally let out a breath then, sinking in his seat as he pushed the mask up off of his face.

"…it was a bad night, wasn't it?" she whispered softly, pausing to look over her shoulder to see if anyone else had filtered into the area yet.  He waited until she was looking back at him before he nodded, not trusting his voice enough to actually answer her.  She was silent, biting her lip in concern.

"Is it happening again?" she asked.  "Like The Incident?"

Adachi ran a hand over his face, letting out a breath and sitting up in his seat before he answered, "I still don't know for sure."  He paused again, his eyes flicking toward her.  "You seem to be familiar with it yourself though."

She backed off at that, immediately falling silent.  It was a moment before she shook her head, biting her lip against obvious bad memories.

"…we were all kids when things started going bad," she finally said softly.  "Of course I'm familiar with it; I grew up watching this place fall apart."


	4. Night Three

_They knew he was there._

_Take and Sakuya were staring directly at him now,_ knowing _that he was there beneath the mask and not happy about it.  Again, he tried to call out to them, to try and tell them that it was him and he was there to help, but his voice did not seem to work.  It was almost like it had been broken for years, and he had no idea why that thought would enter his head.  Maybe it was the whirring noise from moving his head back and forth; it made him feel less like flesh and bone and more like living metal._

_He turned away from Sakuya, starting to get frustrated with the fact that he could not say anything, when he saw a familiar face approached.  The eyes of the mask were empty, but he could have sworn he saw an angry pair of grey eyes before everything went black, and again, there were the whispers:_

it's me

~.oOOo.~

"Are those pills even working?"

Adachi fixed an empty eyed stare on Dojima as he crawled down from his room in the upstairs that morning.  His old partner was at the dining table, helping Nanako sit up and eat her breakfast, even though today she seemed more interested in goofing off than actually eating.  She managed to swivel her focus toward Adachi, lips twitching faintly in what he had come to recognize as her greeting for him.  He managed a smile, just for her, before running a tired hand over his eyes.

"Remember when I said I was dreaming about the murders from the kids' point of view?" he asked, looking back to his old partner.  "Well, I think something like that is happening again.  I think something really important happened between when the place was first closed down and now, and I just have to piece it together from these dreams."

He flopped down in a chair, where a plate of food had already been left out for him, and of course, Dojima was giving him the most critical look ever.  He did not believe him, not that Adachi could blame him one bit.  One of the children that had been murdered thirteen years ago now was his nephew, a shy grey haired boy named Yu Narukami.  He would not believe it either if someone told him they dreamed about the murder of a family member.

Before either of them could say anything, a rushed sounding knock came from the front door, and Naoto entered the house, just barely managing to shuck off her shoes at the door.

"I don't know why you bother knocking anymore," Adachi said as she hurried over to the table, looking winded.

She gave him a sour look in response.  "Because it is the polite thing to do."

"So's waiting for someone to open the door for you," Dojima grumbled, eyeing the massive folder she had her arms wrapped around.  "What's all that?"

She pitched herself forward, letting the huge folder fall onto the table with a _thump_ that made Adachi's plate jump.  Pulling away showed that it was much more massive than it appeared when she was hugging it to her chest, and both men stared at it, before turning their gazes to Naoto, wondering how such a tiny woman managed to lug that around.

"These are the reports I've managed to gather on the confirmed persons that went missing from Junes during the first incident," she explained.  "Perhaps going through these files will yield some clues."

"Are you crazy?" Adachi asked, reaching a finger under the lip of the folder and pushing it up.  "Where are we going to find the time to go through all this?  This isn't our only case right now, you know."

Naoto responded immediately, but he was not listening to her.  Right on the top of the stack was a file with a very familiar photo attached to it.  Of course, he was the last one murdered; he was the last one to only have his eyes see the light of day again, peering out from the Teddie suit on stage as a kid remarked how he had new eyes…

_...the Teddie animatronic._

"That's it…"

Naoto came to a sputtering stop, staring.  "What?"

Adachi flipped the folder up all the way, leaving Dojima to grab for his coffee before he accidentally knocked it over.  He was not paying attention to him, however, stabbing a finger at the portrait instead.

"That!  Namatame Taro!" Adachi hissed.  "When the animatronics grabbed him, they killed him by stuffing him into a suit.  _The Teddie suit._ You said yourself, out of the old animatronics, only Teddie's endoskeleton was reused; the others were left in the parts and service room to rot."

He grabbed the file from the folder, almost looking like he was going to tear it in half.  Adachi knew very well that his moral compass was not exactly straight; no straight and narrow cop, even a former one, would agree to bring someone's murderer to them like he did, kids or otherwise.  When he found out that Namatame was the murderer, the same person that had been doing truck deliveries at the store in the decade that passed since he murdered those kids, he was lucky Adachi did not kill him with his own two hands.

"I don't get it," Dojima replied, looking at his partner like he was crazy.

Adachi paused for breath, explaining the dreams he had been having; the angry animatronics, the fact that he could not speak – Teddie's voice box had never worked very well; if his alarm went off during the night, he sounded like a garbled mess the next day.

"I'm seeing things through Namatame's eyes," he explained.  "Something happened before the play area was reconstructed; something that made Namatame 'wake up' in Teddie's endoskeleton, the same as when the kids woke up in their animatronics.  And that bastard is still in General Teddie now; that's why he lingers so damn much when he comes into the room.  He knows it's me there, but he can't be sure because the AI's facial recognition is telling him that it's just another animatronic sitting there."

Dojima and Naoto exchanged uncertain looks, and it was clear they thought this was already getting to his head.  He smacked a hand to his mouth in frustration, trying to think of something to say that would get them to believe him, but a small voice spoke up for him.

"…nagi!"

Adachi paused, almost forgetting that Nanako was still sitting there.  She had somehow managed to get a hand up, a finger pointed straight out at him even though the position was setting her off balance.  Dojima reached over for her, helping to keep her steady and put her arm back down, but she stubbornly snapped it back up.

_"NAGI!"_

He paused, knowing what she was trying to say: Izanagi.  It was the old Izanagi he had seen that morning in his dreams – even if he did not have his mask to wear every night, he was never going to forget the look of that animatronic.  Adachi gave her a small nod, and she calmed down enough for Dojima to finally succeed in keeping her arm down.

"I need to see the old animatronics during a time when it's safe," he said softly.  "Especially Izanagi.  Not sure how I'll do that yet without attracting attention, but…"

He trailed off, remembering what Rise had told him that morning, about how they were all kids when the first murder occurred…  How they had watched the place decline.  He was betting that by "we all", she was including not only herself, but Satonaka as well.

Adachi dropped the file back onto the folder stack, stuffing a piece of toast in his mouth and mumbling that he needed to get to work.

~.oOOo.~

It seemed luck was unusually on his side for once.  When he arrived at Junes, Satonaka was the first person he bumped into, off on one of her enthusiastic sprints to her office.  She paused when she saw him, staring in surprise for a moment, before one of those huge grins of hers appeared on her face.  It was really hard to dislike her when she could have expressions like that, never mind that she was so ignorant about what was going on in her own department.

"Kindaichi-san!  What brings you in so early?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something, if you don't mind?" Adachi replied, keeping his tone light and innocent as he still worked over what he was going to say.  He had not _quite_ figured out that part yet.

"Sure!  C'mon to my office."

He followed her toward the very back of Teddie's Play Place, out into shipping and the manager offices beyond.  Hers was a small office, like it was a last minute thought to give her one, and of course he was in for a rude surprise as soon as he stepped inside.

It was just as small on the inside as it was on the outside, and the room was mostly taken up by a desk… and a big, red and feathery bird of an animatronic.  Adachi froze at the sight of Sakuya just standing there in the office, like she really was a decommissioned and lovingly restored piece of machinery.  If he did not know any better, he would have thought that was all she was, and would not have noticed that she looked more like she was holding her breath.

Satonaka clearly never noticed, and she vaulted over the desk, as there was no way for her to go around the desk.  She was flopping down in the chair the next moment, putting on the mask of a professional, despite the fact that she still had that big grin on her face.

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well…" Adachi began, trying not to look over at Sakuya.  "I was talking with Rise-chan the other day… she told me how much you had wanted to repair the older animatronics."

That smile dropped quickly to a look of surprise instead.  "Ah… yeah.  I could only get Teddie and Sakuya fixed up before upper management pulled the plug."

Adachi gave a nod.  "Well… I have a little experience with robotics?" he continued, which was a bold faced lie, but she did not need to know that.  "I should be able to at least try to make an improvement on their condition."

Satonaka almost looked like she was going to launch herself up from behind the desk and tackle him in a hug, but she managed to reel herself in through some miracle.  She let out a cough, straightening herself out first, before she replied.

"I can't give you the overtime to do that," she began.  "Buuuut… if you want to bring them to the office during the night and work on them yourself, I can't exactly stop you."

Adachi had to struggle to keep a neutral look on his face, though internally he was screaming.  Yeah, she could not stop him from bringing them into the office… _no one could stop them from getting into the office._ He really had to wonder how she could be the area manager and still be so ignorant of what was going on.  He glanced sidelong at Sakuya then; if he could not get into parts and service during the day without looking suspicious, then this was his only shot of at least confirming if the kids were still inside those things.

He pushed himself out of his seat, making a show of peering at her, like he was trying to figure out her mechanics.

"These guys are how old now?  Thirteen years?" he asked.

"Fourteen," Satonaka explained, standing up to stand at the bird's other side.  She reached up, a hand resting on a feathered arm.  "You know, there was a contest back then?  This location was supposed to be the test location for the play area; they were originally going to have it in all Junes stores nationwide.  So when they announced it, they held a contest for the animatronic designs."

She smiled faintly, but it looked more like she was remembering things that she had not thought of in far, far too long.  A small sigh escaped from her after a moment, and she patted the animatronic's arm again.

"My best friend designed this one," she continued.  "She fell in love with it as soon as she saw it.  She was so happy…"

Satonaka trailed off, biting her lip.  She shook her head after a moment, forcing that smile back on her face.

"Anyway, you can do what you can," she said.  "As long as it doesn't interfere with your responsibilities, I don't mind."

Adachi gave a small nod of acknowledgement, and as she turned away to get in position to leap back over the desk, he swore he could see tears escaping from Sakuya's eyes.

~.oOOo.~ 

"Was it Jiraiya that appeared down the hall?"

Adachi focused on the tablet in front of him, winding the music box as usual while Rise's latest message played in the background.  She had been surprised to see him back again when he returned to the store for work, and her message had even started out with doubt that he would be listening to it.  The poor girl probably thought he was definitely insane by now, and he was not about to correct her.  He had to be crazy to keep coming back to this madness, but at least they seemed to be giving him a break after last night.

That was probably going to change.

"He was always my favorite, but he scared me the first time I saw him like he is now," she continued.  "They tried to remake him, you know?  That's Suso… he was supposed to be in the Kid's Pond for the toddlers, but… well.  It really was a bad idea to put him in a place with little kids.  The staff would have to put Suso back together again at the end of every shift.  Eventually they just capped the sharp ends and left him as a put together, take apart game.  I think they call him 'the Mangle'.  It's really cruel…"

Adachi let out a snort at that.  _The Mangle;_ if he was not so worried about that thing killing him, he might find that more amusing.

"I'm not sure what happened last night, but the General seems to be a little… off today," Rise's voice said, and Adachi felt his heart hit his stomach.  "I'd be careful around him tonight; he almost looks like he's… planning something.  I know that sounds weird, but…"

She trailed off, and Adachi shook his head like she was standing right there; no, it was not weird.  He was pretty sure that General was out to toast his ass.

"Anyway… just please be careful.  I'll try and come in early tomorrow; maybe if the lights come on early, they'll stop moving," she suggested.  "Maybe… I'll see you then."

The recording snapped off, and sure enough, when he swapped to the stage camera, Teddie was missing from his place.  He swore under his breath, flashing his light down the hall, only to see his fuzzy red and blue at the far end of the corridor.  The animatronic looked like he had been in the middle of moving when he froze, and it really did look like he had forced it to do a system restart.  Adachi smirked at that, feeling the same kind of satisfaction as when he was beating Namatame's face in.

He flashed the light on and off, and suddenly the caricature down the hall changed between blinks.  Adachi near leapt clear out of his skin as Take's faceless form loomed uncomfortably close to his door.  He had to pay attention to the music box for a moment, but he trained a wary eye on the hall until he could lift his light again.  The hall was empty, but… had one flash been enough?

A thump came from his left vent after a moment, and he pulled up the camera only to see beady red nightmare LED lights staring back at him.  He could not keep back the scream, and he ended up dropping the tablet in favor of pulling the mask down over his face.  Something was thumping around in the vents, and it went on for what felt like hours before those lights were right in front of his face.  Adachi felt his face instantly break out in sweat, and for a moment he was worried his mask was going to slip right off.

Take finally moved on, allowing him to get to the music box before it ran out.  He did not breathe again until it was fully wound, and he flicked around to the other areas.  So apparently Take was on the move now, and he could see the Mangle slinking around on one of the screens.  The stage was completely empty now – of course – and he could not see where any of them were.

"Where are you guys…?" he muttered under his breath, grabbing his flashlight.  Jiraiya was on the other end… and his mangled upgrade was _a lot closer._ Adachi swore, pulling down his mask as the Mangle – he liked that name way more than Suso – wove its way into the office.  That obnoxious static noise filled the room again as it wove around above him, hanging down directly in his face.  His eyes went wide as the animatronic swung back and forth, both of its heads staring at him as he silently prayed for the abomination to go the hell away.

It felt like forever before it finally did, and he peered up from around his mask, only to hear something thumping around in the right vent.  He swore, pulling the mask down again, just in time to see Roten glide on past him, thunderbolt whiskers twitching the whole way.  Once the rabbit was out of sight again, he had barely gotten a hand on the mask when he heard something shuffling around in the hallway.  General Teddie appeared just as he flopped back in his seat, trying to keep his head from leaping straight out of his chest.  Oh dammit, _he was going to die like this._

The General stared into the eyes of his mask for a long time, as if he were trying _very hard_ to get enough of a look at him so his AI programming would stop telling him that Adachi was an animatronic.  He was certain that the caricature was just going to rip him apart anyway, but after a few tense minutes he finally moved on.

Adachi waited, half expecting to hear someone else, before finally pulling off the mask and grabbing for the tablet to wind the music box.  It was teetering on empty when he finally got to it, and he was fairly certain he could feel his heart in his throat as the indicator wound back up to full.

He flopped back in his seat, his heart pounding in his chest.  This was too much; they really were out to murder him tonight, and there was nothing he could do about it.  Just as he was about to pull himself back up and check for them again, he could hear… _something,_ something that he had not heard yet in his time there.  It was like nails on a chalkboard, only much softer, like it was scraping along the plastic tiles.  Adachi froze, his eyes widening in fear, somehow managing to pull his mask down just in time.

The thing of his nightmares walked out of the darkness of the hallway, pinpoints of yellow light staring down at him from the mask high above, somehow looking even worse for wear than when he had first seen him. In addition to the work he had done to fix him up being completely undone, his jaw was complete missing now.  Adachi's hands clenched at the chair arms as he fought not to move, his heart beating hard enough to jump free from his chest.  Izanagi bent down before him, _staring_ into the eyes of his mask, before reaching up to run a finger along the angles of his own mask.  He was fairly certain he was going to faint if this kept up, but Izanagi did not move as it continued to touch him with a bare metal finger.  It was almost like he knew for certain that he was there…

The animatronic suddenly stood up straight, looking down at him again… before finally turning away and leaving.  Adachi near fell out of his chair, fumbling for the tablet so he could wind the music box and trying not to think.  He almost died… he was fairly sure he almost died just there.

He did not get much of a chance to rest; something was thumping and clanging in the vents, and he had to pull his mask down again.  Dammit, he had not been able to look down the hall for some time; hopefully the balloon bobbing across his vision would just… tell Jiraiya that nothing was around?  That was definitely wishful thinking on his part; once the balloon was out of his sight, he flicked on the flashlight, catching the frog just down the hallway.  He kept flashing until he disappeared, flopping back again.

"Dammit…" he groaned, running his hands over his face.  What time was it even?  He had totally forgotten to grab a watch on his rush out the door.  Adachi did not get the chance to try and figure it out, as he heard that shuffling in the hallway again.  He swore as he pulled his mask down again, and the General loomed into his vision again.  The animatronic looked like he was glaring at him, infuriated by the fact that he was outwitting his AI.

The General shuffled off, but they started coming after him one after another.  He saw the balloon bob past him again, followed by Roten sliding by.  He managed to shove the mask up and wind the music box what little he could before he heard something in the hallway again.  He shoved the mask back down as Ame came in, feathered hand over her mouth as she peered at him, the Mangle coming in and looping around from the hallway as well.  Adachi had to bite his lip to keep himself from crying out.  No, no… go away, go away…!

They suddenly stiffened, looking like they had been caught unaware.  Mangle froze up so much that he ended up falling from the ceiling, landing on the floor with a _clang._ Someone let out a surprised noise, and Adachi peered beyond Ame to see that the lights outside the office were on, and he caught Rise running toward the him in the next moment.  He almost yelled for her to back off, that it could not have been six AM yet, but Ame did not move an inch as she pushed the animatronic aside, checking in on Adachi.

"Kindaichi-san?" she asked, her voice trembling.  He hesitated, reaching up to grab for his mask, when Ame suddenly moved… but it was not to grab either of them.  Instead she heading out of the office, the Mangle looking like he was going to do the same, but he seemed to be bound to normal physics now, and did not have enough limbs to move properly.

Rise followed Ame with her eyes, catching sight of the others returning to their places, before turning back to Adachi.

"It's okay, they're programmed to reset their position at six AM," she explained, and Adachi finally reached up, pulling the mask off.  Rise stared at him, and he could only imagine how tired and drawn out his face looked after everything he had gone through that night.  "Are you sure you're all right…?"

"I'll be okay," Adachi assured her.  "They were… _really_ aggressive tonight."

_"Aggressive?"_ she echoed, eyes widening.  "What—?"

Adachi just stood up from the chair, setting the Izanagi mask on the desk and staring down at it.  That animatronic… there was no doubt in his mind that he knew who was hiding behind that mask.


	5. Night Four

_There was something watching him._

_It was right in his face, blocking his view of anything else.  He looked back and forth, trying to see around the thing in front of his face, but Sakuya and Take were not paying any attention to him.  He struggled to look around the creature, but it kept staying directly in his face, forcing them to meet eye to eye.  It made him focus on the thing, and he realized then that it was the Puppet, staring right into the holes of his mask.  The realization made him want to jump back in fright and scream, but the only movement he could make was his head going back and forth until his vision erupted in static.  
_

it's me

~.oOOo.~

"You need to stop."

Adachi focused a bland look on Dojima's face, a massive cup of coffee in his hands.  He just took a sip in quiet defiance, before moving to flop down into a chair by Naoto at the kitchen table.  Dojima stared after him, frowning in irritation, before going over and planting his hands on the table in front of Adachi, staring him in the face.

"I'm not kidding.  This is tearing you apart," he stated.  "If you keep this up, you're going to either get yourself killed or worse."

"And who's going to take care of this then?" Adachi grumbled back at him.  He felt bad for being that blunt, and Dojima even backed off a bit, like he could not believe he would be that harsh.  He would have to apologize for being a pain once he was properly caffeinated, but instead he stuffed his face in his coffee mug, nearly downing it in one gulp.

Naoto eyed him from her seat, concern clear on her face.  "Did you… see anything last night?"

Adachi nodded, planting his hand over his face and rubbing at his eyes.  "…that puppet," he muttered.  "That puppet has something to do with Namatame bein' in Teddie."

She exchanged glances with Dojima.  "So we need to find out what that thing is?"

He nodded again.  "I don't think the original animatronics want anything to do with that thing," he replied.  "They weren't even looking at it in my dream."

"So are the different animatronics working together or not?" Naoto asked as Dojima let out an annoyed noise, plopping himself down in a seat.

"I dunno," Adachi replied.  "I saw Jiraiya and the Mangle together last night, but the Mangle didn't seem to care about him."

 _"The Mangle,"_ Dojima deadpanned, not looking impressed.

He let out a sigh, rubbing his face again.  "Look, all I know right now is those things know it's me, or at least some human under that mask," he said.  "The General was particularly insistent last night; he was _really_ trying to override his programming to get to me.  And Izanagi?  _Definitely_ knew it was me."

Dojima twitched at that, looking even more disgruntled than before, not that Adachi could blame him.  He managed to scrounge up a sympathetic gaze for his partner, before he let out a sigh.

"…last time, the fourth night was when I found out Konishi was already dead, and I saw Izanagi for the first time," he said softly.  "If this mirrors the last time, then I might end up seeing the new Izanagi tonight."

Naoto sat up a bit straighter at that, pulling out a folder of information from the stack that was accumulating for the case.  She pulled out the images of the animatronics again, locating the new, white Izanagi and flipping it over to the information sheet that was clipped to the back.

"…you haven't seen this one on the floor?" she asked, glancing up in time to see Adachi shake his head.  She pressed her lips into a thin line, taking a break before continuing.  "'The new version of Izanagi was built first, and had been set near the arcade area to pass out a special present to the child that beat the high score in one of the games.  After the first night, the animatronic mysteriously disappeared, no trace of it to be found."

"Wait, it handed out presents?" Adachi asked, suddenly a little more alert.  "That's what the puppet thing does now."

He glanced at the two of them, before flopping back in his seat.  Just what the hell was that supposed to mean…?

~.oOOo.~

"You need to tell me what happened last night when I see you tomorrow morning."

Adachi frowned at the recorder as he poked at the tablet, already hearing the funky balloon boy banging around in the vents.  Rise did not sound her usual cheerful self on the tape, and almost sounded like she was accusing him of something.

"The animatronics have been acting strange since last night, like someone tampered with their facial recognition systems," she said.  "They interact with the kids just fine, but whenever they encounter an adult they just… stare.  It's creepy.  You might want to avoid looking directly at any of them tonight… who knows how they'll react?"

Considering one of them was already after him, he was not about to argue with that.  But she seemed to think _he_ was the one that messed with the programming, which was kind of funny, really.  He was smart, but Adachi knew he could not program a computer to put up, "hello world," on the screen, let alone mess with a more complicated system.

"But yeah… just be careful tonight, and I'll see you tomorrow morning.  I'll… try to come in early again."

The tape snapped off just in time for Adachi to see an afro poking out of one of the vents.  He tugged his mask over his eyes just in time to see a balloon bobbing across his vision, that familiar laughter going past him and down the hallway.  His mask went back up, only to hear more thumping in the vents and shuffling around in the hallway.  Dammit, they were all coming for him at once, hunh?

He have to pull down the mask again as Roten glided past him, and once more as Take _loomed_ creepily over him a moment later.  The music box got a few seconds of winding, before he had to duck and hide again as the General came into the office.  Teddie took _forever_ staring at him, and maybe it was because of Rise's message, but he was reluctant to look the bear in the face, his eyes darting away from his direct line of sight.  The bear finally went away, and Adachi shoved his mask up enough to plant a finger on the wind button, while grabbing the flashlight.  Jiraiya was _way closer_ than he had any right to be, and Adachi could feel his heart about ready to leap out of his mouth.  That was close, that was way too close!

More thumping came from around him, and he planted the mask back over his face as he heard the Mangle's broken speaker coming his way.  He seemed largely uninterested in him tonight, and when Adachi pushed the mask back up, he got treated to something _very_ new.  The shadows in the corners of the room were moving, little pinpricks of LED lights staring at him like sets of eyes.  Adachi had to slap a hand over his mouth to keep himself from screaming, squeezing his eyes shut and half expecting something to happen.  When nothing did, he cracked his eyes open, only to see that the Shadows had returned to normal.

"What the…" he muttered, feeling his heart hammering already.  Was he hallucinating?  He had done that when he first saw Izanagi, after all – the animatronic that had invaded his office was clearly a figment of his imagination, considering he had legs, and the real Izanagi was in pieces at the time.

Adachi shook it off, focusing back on the cameras as the office filled with more pounding noises.  They were _really_ on his ass tonight, more so than any night he had been through yet, including the first time.  He shifted his feet, fidgeting and fussing as he tried to figure out what would be coming at him first, only to have his feet kick at something hard.  Adachi froze up before ducking down to look under the desk, and he swore he caught a glimpse of an afro, but it was gone too quickly for him to be certain.

"Oh, you guys are just screwing with me now, aren't you?" he hissed in annoyance.

He did not have much time to dwell on it; something was clanging a little too loudly in the vent, and he yanked his mask down just in time to watch Roten skate by his field of vision.  A moment passed before he pushed it back up, though he instantly regretted it.  In the corner, by the vent that Roten came out of, a massive animatronic endoskeleton was standing there, _staring right at him._ Adachi swore loudly as he pulled the mask back down out of instinct, squeezing his eyes shut.  No, no, no; he was dead!  Why was there one of the damn things wandering around without a suit!?

Hour long minutes ticked by, before Adachi realized he was not dead.  He poked an eye open, only to see that any trace of the bare endoskeleton was gone.  Again he stared, before shifting around, trying to peer down the vents and the hallway with the lights.  What the _hell_ had that been about?  Was he really losing his mind?  He ran a hand over his face; maybe Dojima-san was right, he really needed to stop.  This was going to do more damage to him than just getting stuffed into a suit at this rate.

The vents were banging up a storm again, and he barely had time to do any winding on the music box when he had to pull down his mask again to keep Ame from grabbing him.  He managed to get another couple winds in again before the General wandered in after her, and as usual, he took his sweet time lingering in Adachi's face.  His heart started pounding in fear, worried that if this kept up, he was not going to be able to get a good wind in on that music box.  If that thing ran out… dammit, he really did not want to know what that puppet thing would do to him…!

The General finally disappeared, and Adachi let out a breath, shoving his mask up just in time to see the lights come on in the hallway outside.  He stared in mute shock, before looking down at his watch; Rise was over a half hour early…?  She came running down to the guard office, looking a bit bedraggled, like it had been a supreme struggle for her to crawl out of bed that early in the morning.  Still, she managed a concerned look for him as he flopped back in his chair in relief.

"Kindaichi-san?" she asked curiously.  "Was it bad tonight too?"

"Yeah," he admitted.  "Think I might be losing my mind a little bit.  I swear I saw a bare endoskeleton wandering around."

"Just an endoskeleton…?" Rise asked softly, eyes widening.  That seemed a bit much for her, and she looked like she was going to say as much, when there was suddenly the sound of something powering down – a sound Adachi was all too familiar with.  She spun around just in time to see the lights outside dim down before they shut off all together, and he felt his heart freeze up in his chest.

"Rise," he hissed, trying to get her attention.  She just stood there in front of him, frozen in fear, and Adachi had to grab the flash light and angle himself around her, blinking it down the hallway to show Jiraiya just down the way.  Rise looked like she was going to scream, nearly backing up over his desk.

"Get behind the desk," he hissed as a loud clanging noise came from the vents.  "Get behind the desk, keep down, and whatever you do, don't scream."

Rise was not about to argue with him, and she skirted around the desk and ducked down next to him, hugging her knees to her chest.  She stared up at him as he pulled the mask down, watching him with wide eyes, but he could not pay attention to her.  Roten was skating by his vision again, disappearing into the hallway, and he pushed the mask back up so he could wind up the music box, which had gone down to almost nothing in the time since Rise came in.

That familiar shuffling came next, and Adachi pulled the mask down in time for the General to wander into the office.  He glared back at the bear through the mask as he stared at him, trying _desperately_ to override his programming, and Adachi was just daring him to do it to.  He would have loved to go a few more rounds with Namatame's face, especially now that it had that stupid, fluffy grin.  The stupid animatronic stayed there for what felt like hours, just staring him down, before it finally moved away.

Adachi pushed his mask up, letting out a breath, before going for the music box again.  The vents were banging and clanging again, and he felt Rise dig her nails into his leg in an effort not to scream.  He flinched, trying to focus on what was going to come at him first with needle-nails digging into him, only to end up just pulling the mask down just to protect himself.  The Mangle came worming into the office then, static hissing loud enough to cut through his eardrums.  He was hanging out for a long time, and it took Adachi glancing up at the thing to realize why:

From its angle, dangling from the ceiling, it could see the top of Rise's head.

 _"Shit…"_ he hissed under his breath, already able to hear things shuffling around outside in the hallway.  His heart hammered loudly in his ears as faceless Take came in first, little red LED lights looking down at him, looking like he was going to pound on the desk before leaving, Ame coming right up to Adachi's face next.  He was starting to have trouble getting any feeling in his leg by the time she left, and he almost reached down to nudge Rise, except that the General was coming in next.  He wanted to scream, and he swore he could hear the familiar sound of dashing frog feet… before there was a sudden _bang_ as the power came back, the lights flickering on outside.  The General stiffened, almost looking like he was glaring at Adachi as his programming sent him walking back toward the stage.

Adachi waited until physics took over on Mangle before he pushed his mask up, reaching up to rub his hands over his face as the twisted animatronic tried to reset his position.  He glanced over at the loud thing trying to flop along, before down the hall where he could see the others resetting their positions, and then finally down to Rise, who had yet to let go of his leg.

"Hey, we should work together more often," he quipped, trying to lighten the mood.

The look she gave him in response quickly let him know he did not succeed. She got to her feet immediately after that, leaving Adachi to scramble out of his seat to go after her as she went shaking off to Satonaka's office. If she was going to talk to her about what just happened… dammit, he needed to get to the end of this. If he got kicked off the job, then more people could end up dying all over again. He flailed, reaching out to her and catching her arm.

"Rise-chan, please, I swear I'm just trying to help here," he assured her, trying to sound as convincing as he could manage. "There's something going on here again, and I really need to get to the bottom of it."

She hesitated, glancing back at him, an uncertain look on her face. Adachi let his hand drop, breathing an inward sigh of relief.

"Look, let me get into the back room, where the old ones are," he began. "Let me see what I can find in there."

The color drained out of Rise's face, and he knew what was coming before he even finished speaking.

"What—no!" she exclaimed. "Why would you even want to go back there?!"

A few employees paused what they were doing, looking at Rise and Adachi. She looked around at them, before shaking her head.

"Just… go home, Kindaichi-san. Just go home."

She turned away from him, heading for the guard office, and Adachi let out a tired sigh. He was not getting anywhere this time, and he had a feeling his next shift was going to be the worst one yet.

He turned away after a moment, starting for the door out of Teddie's Play Place so he could clock out and head home. Activity around the stage caught his attention, and he saw a number of workers gathered around Ame, powering her down from her maintenance hatch hidden on her back. Only two of them wore Junes uniforms, however; the others wore jumpsuits advertising some kind of cleaning service.

"…no idea when she started to smell, but the kids were complaining yesterday," he caught one of the Junes employees saying.

"Didn't we have this problem with Roten before?" another asked, and Adachi felt like ice had covered over his feet, crawled up his legs and was starting to worm its way up his spine. "What the heck is going on here?"

Adachi could feel his heart pound loudly in his chest, dread clawing at his mind; dammit, he was already too late with this. People were dying again, and he had nothing to go to try and get it to _stop…_


	6. Night Five

_Something was whispering without a voice, calling out to him to follow it. He glanced around, noticing the familiar surroundings of the parts and service room that he had only seen through a camera lens until now. At his feet were their broken forms, unnaturally still as the voiceless thing continued to call to him, begging him to come after it. He started out of the room, joints creaking with each movement as he stepped out into the party hallway, immediately spotting the shadowy figure striped in red. It had to be the Puppet, and he really was in no mood to follow that creepy thing, but the dream had taken over now and his body refused to listen to him._

_He followed the Puppet through the hall and into the prize area, losing sight of it inside. In place of where the Puppet usually hung, ready to hand out prizes to the boys and girls, there was a large present, looking like it was just waiting to be unwrapped by someone that was really deserving of a gift._

save them 

~.oOOo.~

Adachi felt like he had an elephant sleeping on his chest all morning when he finally managed to crawl out of bed, still woozy from sleeping pills. He was in such a haze he probably would have missed the piece of newspaper stuck to his door entirely if it had not fluttered up and nearly smacked him in the face. Even then, he was tempted to ignore it and stumble off downstairs for some much needed coffee, but unfortunately he was awake enough to realize it was likely there for a reason. Grumbling under his breath, he snatched the paper off his door, staring down at it as he tried to blink the sleep out of his eyes.

**IDOL KANAMIN MISSING AFTER SCHEDULED APPEARANCE AT JUNES  
**

He blinked again, before shaking his head, forcing his brain to focus on the rest of the article. Kanami Mashita was a popular idol amongst younger kids and teens, with her cute mannerisms and adorable way of speaking… or at least that was what people said. Idol girls and their manufactured appearance were not exactly Adachi's type when it came to much of anything, as most of them had high pitched, squeaky voices that grated his ears. Still, popular was popular, and according to the article, the Inaba Junes store was planning to have her perform with the animatronics in Teddie's Play Place, but she went missing before it could happen.

In addition to the article, someone had circled the date of the performance, and Adachi recognized Naoto's tidy scrawl near it pointing out that it happened _before_ he received the phone call from the previous – now very obviously dead – night guard.

Adachi grumbled again, very much awake now as he started downstairs, though not awake enough to be more mindful of his footing on the way down. Dojima turned to stare at him as he stomped down onto the bottom landing, finally managing to pull himself together in time to not plant his face into the wood. His partner shook his head at him, patiently waiting for him to stumble into the living room before speaking.

"I take it you got Naoto's note," he said.

"More like her note got me," he grumbled in response. "Why didn't we know about this until now?"

"Junes was keeping it quiet, paying off the company she worked for to be silent," Dojima explained. "But her manager and the company was expecting them to do something, not hide the fact that she was gone. They released their story to the papers last night."

"Fantastic…" Adachi grumbled, staring at the article still in his hand in distaste. "So much for Junes Corporate cooperating with us. Where's Naoto-kun now?"

Dojima sat forward in his seat, not looking like he was going to enjoy what was coming. "She went to Junes by herself to get more information. I told her to wait for you to wake up, but… you know how she is."

Adachi frowned bitterly, waving the newspaper article like a flag. "She went into full bitty detective rampage mode; yeah, I know."

At least with them arriving separately he could still keep his cover as Auguste Kindachi, but that was a cold comfort. Even still, he knew he had to get there, and quickly, if only so he could touch base and find out what was going on, and maybe do a little damage control. Naoto was, first and foremost, a fairly ruthless detective, and she did not care much how other people perceived her when she was so narrowly focused on solving a mystery.

Adachi crammed breakfast and enough coffee to supply an entire army down his throat, before heading out to Junes as quickly as he could. Even then, he still arrived later than he wanted to, with only a few hours before his shift started. The first person he spotted with Satonaka, looking exceptionally harassed instead of her usual perky self, and he knew that Naoto had already gotten to her. She spared him a faint welcome before heading off to her office, and he swore she looked like she was nearly in tears.

At first he was ready to scold Naoto for that one – this certainly was not the first time she had sent a witness or a suspect off crying – but the real reason for the tears was made apparent as soon as he got near Teddie's Play Place. There was a massive "Section Closed Come Back Later" sign roping off the cheerful entrance from the rest of Junes, and he could already see the local area police questioning employees. Naoto was there as well, speaking with one of the detectives on the scene, when she happened to glance up, spotting him. She waved Adachi over, and he ducked under the rope to join them.

"Looks like the same situation as last time is happening again, _detective,"_ the department detective near sneered at him, earning him an annoyed look from Naoto and a bland one from Adachi. He was not entirely sure if this was someone he worked with when he was still employed by the prefecture, but he did not really care at the moment.

"Detective, Adachi-san is here as my agent, just as before," Naoto intervened, her tone ice cold. "Given his experience with the previous events that occurred at this facility, he was the only individual on my staff best suited for the job. It would be to all of our benefits if you did not speak to him with such a tone."

The detective paused, glancing at Naoto, and Adachi sincerely wished that he would spout out the usual protest; that Naoto was a _woman,_ like that was supposed to be some kind of curse, and she had no right being so bossy to him. It had been awhile since he had seen the bitty detective rip into someone for that, and after the nights of terror he could have used the entertainment. Fortunately for him, he kept his mouth shut, pressing his lips together in a thin line, before shaking his head.

"My apologies, detective," he said, though it sounded like he had to force that out. Adachi just shrugged, not giving a damn what the idiot thought of him.

"What'd I miss while I was passed out?" he finally asked.

Naoto glanced at the detective, who was struggling not to grimace at being forced to cooperate. Adachi really wanted to know what kind of conversation took place before he got there, but he bit his tongue, figuring that Naoto would tell him later.

"My men have searched this entire facility, but we've found no trace that Kanamin was ever even here," he began. "We even checked the animatronics in the back storage; nothing. If she was here, she didn't stay here."

Adachi glanced at Naoto, and he could tell by the look on her face that she did not believe all of what he had to say. He had trouble believing it too – they checked the old animatronics and still lived to tell about it? Bullshit.

"Well, I've been here for the past few nights," he replied after a moment. "Only thing I know was that Roten was making a funny smell sometime before I got here, and Ame needed to be cleaned this morning."

"Yes, that animatronic was returned in the afternoon, just as we arrived here," the detective replied. "There was some residue, but no evidence of any human remains inside."

Adachi wanted to call bullshit on that one too, but he bit his tongue instead, not in the mood to provoke the detective while he was still in a generous mood. Unfortunately that generosity ended just then, as he held up his hands.

"None of my men want to catch this case," he said gruffly. "You two 'detectives' have it first? It's all yours. Call me if you find any bodies."

Adachi snorted at that one, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Well, so _nice_ to see the expected standard for the police department is so concerned for the citizens. No _wonder_ they didn't want me around."

The detective shot him an irate look at that, before walking off, going to get his men together, most of them already seeing the other employees of the play area out. Adachi watched him leave, half tempted to stick his tongue out at his retreating back, but he managed to hold off, glancing down at Naoto instead. She had a contemplative look on her face, one that he knew usually led to trouble – trouble he would have to deal with.

"…you're not staying tonight," he said, and from the way her head shot up, he knew he had her pegged. "Forget it, it's way too dangerous for one person, not to mention for two."

"We still need to conduct an investigation, now even more so that there is a missing person tied to—"

"It's not just a missing person," Adachi replied, cutting her off. "It's two dead bodies. You heard me before; Roten and Ame have already needed to be sent off to be cleaned. The animatronics stuff people into suits, and being crammed in there with the animatronic machinery kills them. Why no one is finding the dead bodies I have no idea; they're probably paying off the cleaners to keep quiet. Wouldn't surprise me after hearing about this."

"Even still," Naoto protested, "investigating at night, where the animatronics are active, is our best chance of finding clues. If one of us can keep them distracted while the other looks—"

"It's not that simple, Naoto," Adachi cut her off again, raising his voice. "Those things see you, they _will_ grab you and they _will_ kill you, 'facial recognition' be damned, and who the hell even knows what that Puppet will do when it sees you wandering around."

"Adachi-san—"

"And I can't protect you if you do something like that!"

It took him a moment of staring at her and the deer in headlights look on her face to realize what he said. His face slowly paled as his mouth worked, trying to think of something to say to her. Just as he thought of something she turned away from him, pulling her cap low over her eyes.

"…please inform me as soon as your shift ends," she finally replied stiffly, before hurrying out of the play area as fast as she could. Adachi stared after her for a moment, before planting a hand over his face in exasperation. Could this get _any_ worse right now?

It was a moment before he moved away from the empty play area, pausing only to glance sidelong at the Puppet in his glass case. The noh masked doll was staring out at him, that creepy, empty grin spread wide, and yet at the same time it almost seemed like he was _angry._ Angry at Adachi for eluding him this far, or angry at the cops for shutting down the play area for the day, he was not quite sure. Either way, he hurried away from the doll to the security office, where Rise was sitting like she always was during her shift.

Something was clearly wrong with her, more than just having the play area shut down for the day; that much was obvious from the vacant, dead-eyed stare she was giving the tablet. He stood before her for a moment, waiting for some kind of acknowledgement that was not coming, before finally clearing his throat. Rise jumped at that, looking up at Adachi with wide eyes, like she half expected him to be tall and fuzzy with metal insides.

"Hey," he said, a bit of a smile coming to his face, trying to be a calming presence for her, "always nice to see the guys in blue pretending to earn their paycheck, right?"

Something like a smile almost twitched onto her face, but it disappeared too fast to qualify for much of anything. She finally let out a sigh, sinking back into her chair and planting her hands over her eyes, shaking slightly. It was a long moment before she said anything, and even then she did not remove her hands from her face.

"They asked a few of us some questions," she murmured. "It wasn't really much of an investigation. I don't think they even wanted to be here."

"Figured as much," Adachi replied. "You going to be okay?"

Rise finally dropped her hands then, looking like she had been struggling against tears. "Yeah… I'll be okay. It's just hard to imagine this is all happening again."

Adachi frowned; something about her tone… it sounded completely detached, like she was forcing herself apart from what was going on. He did not get the chance to dwell on it, as she was letting out a sigh in the next moment, sitting forward.

"I guess that's just the curse of living in this town, hunh?" she asked. "No one really wants you anywhere, because these things just keep happening."

Adachi tilted his head in confusion, but she was already standing, shaking her head.

"I guess I should go; no point sticking around the office if there are no kids to watch," Rise explained, sparing him a very forced, almost manufactured smile. "I'll make sure the boss is all right and go home. I'll try and stop in early again, but… not too early."

She shuddered, before hurrying out of the room. Adachi turned slightly, following her with his eyes, before he let out a very tired breath. She was probably exhausted, worn down from everything going on with this place. He could not blame her; he glanced down at his hand, almost expecting tremors to start any second, never mind he had been sure to be well medicated ever since that first night.

After a moment passed, he went around the desk and sat down to relax, not too surprised to see there was no tape waiting for him that night. He had already seen what was going on with his own eyes, and Rise did not look like she was in the best of shapes to leave him any kind of messages. The time ticked by slowly, and quite some time had passed by before he spotted Satonaka and Rise coming out from the back offices. Satonaka paused on the way out, glancing into the room at him.

"Are you sure you want to stay tonight, Kindaichi-san?" she asked. "I can see about you being compensated, given the investigation."

Adachi waved her off. "Don't worry about me. You just try to have a good night."

She smiled warmly at that, offering him a faint thank you before she left with Rise, who did not even look back at him. Adachi let out a soft sigh, hoping he really would be okay; who knew if the investigation had set all of the animatronics off or not.

He grabbed for the security tablet, watching the time slowly click down to midnight. As soon as that "12:00 AM" appeared in the corner, he heard a shuffle down the hallway, and he pulled the camera app up, seeing that Teddie had already left the stage. Adachi let out an annoyed noise as he shifted upright in his chair, completely focused; that little creep was going to be right after his ass tonight, he knew it.

"C'mon, you guys," he hissed, switching over to the counter to wind the music box before the Puppet could get too enthusiastic. "I'm ready for you. I'm ready for all of you."

That shuffling sounded a lot louder all of a sudden, and he did not bother with the flashlight; he pulled down his mask immediately, not surprised to see the bear animatronic wander in right after. Teddie stared into the eyes of the mask, looking angry as always as he tried desperately to confirm there was a human being behind those holes, before he finally went away. Adachi shoved the mask up, winding the music box as _sounds_ started coming in from all around him. They were different from the usual breathing down the vent sounds he heard when one of them was close; it was more like screaming mixed with childish laughter, and it made his heart leap up into his chest, remembering the sounds he had heard on his first fifth night at Junes. That had come complete with writing on the wall, mocking him as he was dragged off to his supposed doom.

Adachi squeezed his eyes shut, feeling his hands tremble around the tablet, but he forced them to stop, not in the mood to have to dry swallow an emergency dose of his anxiety medication. He forced his ears to tune out the laughter, grabbing the flashlight and flicking it down the hall in time to see Take's faceless face staring right at him, far too uncomfortably close for his taste. He yanked the mask down after, watching the bunny animatronic wander in and peer down at him, not so much aggressive as curious. He left, giving him enough time to wind the music box, before he heard something in the left vent, and Adachi pulled down the mask yet again, watching as a balloon bounced past his vision.

He muttered about that stupid, annoying funky balloon boy under his breath, checking the hall again, only to see Jiraiya just down the hall. He continued blinking the flashlight on and off until he went away, and pulled the mask down again just as he heard Teddie making his way back. It was kind of weird; he expected Roten or Ame – especially Ame – to be really active that night, but they did not seem to be coming to visit. In fact, the only feet shuffling he had heard come from the stage was because of Teddie; had they even left it yet?

General Teddie was taking his usual sweet time to stare into his mask, and Adachi really wanted to swear at the stupid bear, never mind it probably would have gotten him killed instantly. He needed to wind the damn music box already; it had to be nearly empty. He really did _not_ want to know what that creepy Puppet would do to him if it got loose. As usual, it was forever before he finally left, and Adachi shoved the mask up just enough to stab at the button on the tablet, only getting a few winds in before he had to shove his mask back down as Take made a return visit. He left quickly enough, but then he could hear the static hiss of the Mangle in the vents.

_How did that creepy thing get into the vents?!_

Adachi stared through the eyes of the Izanagi mask, watching in terrified unease as the creepy mess looped its way out of the vent, its remaining eye on the main head and both eyes on the secondary head staring down at him intently. It twitched as it moved around the desk, and Adachi tried desperately not to move as that annoying _sound_ made his ears throb, but the Mangle did not come any closer to him before it finally left.

Adachi let out a tired breath, shoving the mask up just enough so he could get a few winds in on the music box again, before he had to pull it down once more. This was not good; with how intent they were on getting to him, he was only getting a few spastic taps in on the music box every time, and that barely gave the music box much of a wind. He struggled not to panic as Teddie came in again, giving him his usual death stare; he was _not_ going to die this night. He had come way too far for that to happen, but if he could not get to the music box…!

Teddie finally left, and Adachi shoved the mask up, stabbing his finger on the tablet before he realized something really important that he had not been doing with all this back and forth: he had not been able to flash his light down the hallway for far, far too long. He fumbled for the light, trying to flick it on and… _nothing._

Adachi stared at the light like it had just betrayed him, jerking his finger off the tablet to smack at the light. No, no, no; this could not be happening! Why were the batteries _dead?!_ He forced himself to breathe, trying desperately to look around the desk for batteries, but there was only one drawer, and it only had some paperwork in it. No, no, not good! If he could not see down the hallway, than Jiraiya—!

As soon as he thought it, he heard a terrifying _screech_ coming from down the hall. His head snapped up, the mask flopping over his face just as the blank face of the frog was coming barreling down on him, the red scarf it wore falling away to reveal a broken animatronic jaw, metal teeth glinting in the light of the room.

Adachi had no idea how he survived the initial hit, not to mention falling over backwards on the chair with close to four hundred pounds of metal animatronic on top of him. Obviously the chair broke, but somehow Adachi survived, and was conscious enough to realize that Jiraiya was wrapping his thick fingers around his neck. It was not until he gagged from the lack of air that Adachi could move, his hands coming up, trying desperately to get the metal creature off of him. Jiraiya was not budging, however, looking like something demonic as he loomed over him, the red strip on his remaining eyestalk seeming to glow in the light as he swore he could see a faint hint of a light in his eye holes…

"St-sto…!" Adachi struggled to get out, desperately clawing as the edges of his vision started to blacken. No, no, no…!

_"Hana-chan, it's me!"_

The pressure on his neck suddenly disappeared, and Adachi hacked loudly as air was let back into his system. Jiraiya still had one hand on his neck, but the other lifted, reaching over to push the mask off of him as best he could. There was a long moment as Adachi laid there under the animatronic, bare faced, his coughing slowly dying down as he gasped in air… before Jiraiya reached down again, lifting him up into a bear hug and scaring him enough that he actually let out a high pitched yelp. The animatronic just let out what may well have been a happy ribbit, though it was hard to tell with how static ridden the caricature's voice box was.

"…did you just croak at me?" Adachi gasped out, yelping again as a metal hand whapped him on the back of the head. "Ow! Okay, okay, bad choice of words."

A moment passed before Jiraiya let him go, finally letting him stand up on shaky legs and get some air into his lungs. Adachi stumbled back until his back was pressed against a wall, taking deep breaths before he finally could pull himself together enough to stand up straight. He glanced down first, bemoaning the loss of the chair that would certainly get him several questions. In the next moment, he was looking up at Jiraiya, peering at him as the animatronic stayed still for him.

"…is that really you in there?" he asked, only to get a solemn seeming nod in return. "How…?"

Jiraiya glanced away, and Adachi almost smacked himself in the head. Right, the kid – or rather, his soul stuck in the animatronic – could not actually answer him. He was stuck with saying whatever the animatronic was programmed to say, and that clearly was not that much.

"Okay, yes or no questions. One cro—ribbit for no, two for yes, okay?"

Jiraiya let out two croaks, though Adachi got the sinking suspicion he was being sarcastic instead of indicating that yes, he understood. He shot him a reprimanding look – that was okay, right? If the kid were still alive, he would be around stupid teenager age anyway.

"Is that Namatame in the bear?"

Two croaks – he knew it.

"Did the Puppet stick him in there?"

Two croaks – that damn demonic Puppet! He knew it was trouble!

Adachi paused a moment, considering his next question. The dreams he had had until now… they had always ended with some otherworldly voice saying, "It's me." Yesterday morning, however, it had ended with, "Save them."

"…did the Puppet stick you all in your suits to save you?"

Two croaks.

Adachi felt a cold lump settle in the pit of his stomach; was the Puppet just not letting them go now that they were all stuck together in those suits? He was so lost in his own dreadful thoughts that he almost missed the sound of jack-in-the-box music, and his eyes went wide, forgetting something _extremely crucial_ in all the mess of Jiraiya jumping on him.

"The music box—!" he yelped, going to fumble for the security tablet.

There was a scrambling sound from the hallway as he grabbed the electronic, like fabric passing over dry leaves. Adachi's head shot up just as the Puppet shot out of the darkness, looking like a demonic soul straight out of the depths of Yomi itself. The creature got close, unbearably close; so close that he could see the glowing eyes deep set in the blackness of the Puppet's mask, before it was suddenly _yanked_ away from his face. Jiraiya had grabbed the Puppet by its feet, spinning it around like a sling, before sending the creature _flying_ back down the hallway as hard as he could. Adachi heard it hit something, and judging from the static hiss of protest, it sounded like the Mangle had gotten a surprise it was not expecting, before everything fell quiet.

Adachi stood there, dumb struck, staring down the hall as his brain tried to process what just happened and failing miserably. He did not snap out of it until Jiraiya let out a happy croak, somehow looking extraordinarily pleased with himself.

The rest of the night went by in silence, with Jiraiya standing guard over the office and Adachi lost in his own thoughts. He barely even noticed it when the lights suddenly came on, but it was hard to miss the scream of utter terror that followed. His head snapped up just in time to see the animatronic start barreling out of the office, running full tilt to the entrance, where Rise was paralyzed in utter terror. Adachi threw himself out of his broken seat, running after him as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Stop! Stop it!" he yelled. "Hana-chan no!"

Calling him by his real name seemed to be a good way to get Jiraiya to stop, because the animatronic froze, head turning toward him, almost like he could not understand why he was telling him to stop. It gave him the chance to catch up, his heart pounding in his chest.

"Relax, okay? She's just the day guard. It's fine."

Jiraiya stared at him, looking for a moment like he was going to try to make a grab for Rise anyway. He reached over, pressing a hand against his chest like he were a real human being, and the animatronic eased back, his eyes never leaving Rise, even when he finally moved away and started back to the parts and service room. Adachi glanced past him, spotting that it was six AM; all the animatronics were resetting to their original positions. A thump came from the stage, and he swiveled his head around to see Teddie glaring down at him…

…no, not at _him._

Adachi followed the animatronic's gaze to Rise, staring at her as she fell to her knees, her hands curling into her hair as she started sobbing hysterically. His gaze flicked up to the stage again, noticing that it was not just Teddie staring at her, but Roten and Ame too.

Why _Rise…?_


End file.
